Ellen G. White: The Later Elmshaven Years: 1905-1915 (vol. 6)

Elder Reaser Needed in God's Cause

What assuring words she wrote as she continued her seven-page letter of gratitude and counsel: 6BIO 163.1

Elder Reaser, we have not one worker to spare. We have felt pained at heart as we have seen you placing yourself where you were in danger of sowing strange seed. Oh, how I feared for the results, if you should refuse to accept the light God was sending you. But rest assured that if you will work in harmony with your brethren, we will draw in even cords. If God's servants will walk humbly with Him, they will see of His glory. 6BIO 163.2

She recognized that there was a battle ahead, but assured Reaser that as he sought to “correct those things for which the Lord has reproved” him, God's grace would enable him to see things in their right light, and to be one to help “recover others who stand in the same dangerous position” in which he had stood. 6BIO 163.3

“I believe,” she wrote, “that you will continue to come more and more into the light, and that you will not be separated from the work, but will learn to carry it as a converted man in Christ Jesus.” 6BIO 163.4

As to the influence of this experience in the conference, she continued: 6BIO 163.5

Nothing could give the conference surer confidence in you than the step you are now taking to place yourself in right relation to the work of God. Do not cease your efforts until you stand on vantage ground. And the position you take will help those who have been following a similar course. 6BIO 163.6

If you can retain your position as a minister of God, and reveal His converting power and the grace of Christ in your life, you will teach others the right way.—Letter 4, 1908. 6BIO 163.7

The exchange of correspondence continued over a period of six weeks, Elder Reaser expressing his gratitude for the messages the Lord had sent and his determination to follow the light, and Ellen White carefully keeping before him that the battle he had entered upon was one he must with the help of God pursue, and at the same time keeping before him the tender love of God and the help he must secure from Him. 6BIO 163.8

Elder G. W. Reaser continued to carry on his work as the president of the Southern California Conference as a man who now saw things in their true light. When his term expired, it was thought best to allow him to work in a new field. He responded to a call to Mexico, where, by the help of the Southern California Conference, mission work was being opened. At the 1907 camp meeting, he had reported three trips to Mexico (Pacific Union Recorder, September 19, 1907), so he was somewhat acquainted with and deeply interested in that field. 6BIO 163.9

After two years in Mexico, Elder Reaser engaged in various ministerial activities in the Pacific Union Conference. As a member of the union committee, he participated in an interview with Ellen White at her home on December 4, 1913, and offered prayer and expressed appreciative remarks at the close of the interview (Manuscript 12, 1913). 6BIO 164.1